More than 800 al Qaida militants were killed in an offensive by Yemeni government forces and its Arab allies in the group's main stronghold in the port city if Mukalla, the Saudi-led coalition said.

The coalition said in a statement carried by Saudi state news agency SPA late on Sunday night that many militants fled the Hadramout provincial capital they had held for a year after the offensive by supporters of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi backed by Saudi and Emirati special forces.